"I want to convince you that irony, poker-faced silence, and fear of ridicule are distinctive of those features of contemporary U.S. culture (of which cutting-edge fiction is a part) that enjoy any significant relation to the television whose weird pretty hand has my generation by the throat. I'm going to argue that irony and ridicule are entertaining and effective, and that at the same time they are agents of a great despair and stasis in U.S. culture, and that for aspiring fictionists they pose terrifically vexing problems."

Fantastiskt brev Lars Bo, although it will take me some time to further decode your swirly danish. I agree with you. The pop culture irony DFW refers to has been particularly present in the Swedish climate. As I have said before it has previously caused me to flee this country.

You have mentioned both Rabelais and Cervantes many times in our past and I promise to read them.

Initially, I can sympathise with what you're saying about all language being inherently ironic... but I would choose to use a different word for what you are trying to say (dat irony lolz!). DFW also talks about how we all have become afraid of appearing naive or sentimental and how it detracts from our cultural life.

I have not read much Kierkegaard but he was a determinist yes? I have some problems with determinism. I have even more problems with the opposite side. My personal feeling is that both views are too absolute - "there is no free will, everything is determined by purpose" vs "the universe is random and things can and will exist for no particular reason, there is free will". I'm not really comfortable with any of that.

If I, as an author, have to repeatedly stress the irony in expressing something, the meaninglessness etcetera, then all I am doing is dwelling on the angstful reality that I do not control the reading and co-creation of my work. I think we have to take the risk, like Linné does. It does not mean that we have to live by what he says, accept a doctrine of mono-universe, but we can read him seriously, we can ascribe meaning and definition to his work, we can accept it as an honest and accurate part of the world. We have to get back to the notion that art has to have and does have a purpose and meaning.

What else can we do?

The alternative would be to have some sort of nervous reaction about saying stuff, not really saying anything out of fear that weird pretty hand get a grip around our childish throats, like the helicopter-artists you so acutely describe. (Either that or the dreadful art pour le art)

I say no! I refuse! I think we all need, and should, stand up like children and face the horrors of Terminus.

I hear them Shiva-dudes still remember how. Be sure to tell me all about it when you return my dear and painfully absent Friend.

love

Tor

P.S. Of course there is always the much needed role of the Jester pointing out the madness, the Organ Grinder gone mad, laughing and playing songs after some tragic Guernica-event, but I don't think it is very constructive. If nothing else organ grinders make me depressed and doubtful. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Organ_grinder_with_monkey.jpg

I champion the notion of pessimism, but the difference between f.e. Seneca and the organ grinder is that Seneca will never ever surrender. Pompeii or not. D.S.

On 29 feb 2012, at 21:12, Lars Bo Nørgaard wrote:

Hey. Nice to discuss with you. Be it on the brink of leaving. Oh dear, oh dear all the thind's in my head right now. Packing: Mosquito spray, check, pens and paper, check, etcetera. Reality, check?

On the statement that language is fundamentally ironic: I don't meen that to be negative; that we're lost and everything is in vain etc. More as a realisation that everything is up for discussion. Maybe we could say that reality/language is dialogous (if that word excists) in nature. It has to do with a playful approach to this our dear life. It has nothing to do with determinism or organ grinding - that's just other forms of despair. And I don't know if Kierkegaard was a determinist. Don't know enough about him (I have an idiosyncratic tendency to stay away from the national treasures. It's not altogether a productive tendency). - How I understand irony, is as a way of accepting the flaws and failures that we encounter underway. It's not either/or - it's both/and (Kierkegaard again. He can't have been a determinst, can he? I don't know). --- And I can easily accept Linné and take him seriously (and I mentioned exactly him, in order to poke some fun at the good old Danish/Swedish blabla as well. There are far worse examples. Well ... proper determinists. You know ... fascist and other horrrors). .. The world should be properly investigated and in other to do that, we need categories, specialized language, otherwise we couldn't communicate our knowledge in precise terms. But on the other hand we shouldn't believe TOO much in these categories. we have to remember that they are provisionary, as are even the natural so called laws. Uhoh, moving into theory of relativity here. Uncharted waters.

I understand irony as a tool to seriously investigate the very matter of language and all it's categories and concepts. Swirl. We should swirl!

Here some notes I wrote today:

Not so much: Who are we? But: What are we made up of? And how does it work? And what do we make of it? And what use can we make of it? And what can we do with that? And should we? And why should we? Or should we not?

It’s ok to make parallels, parables, if relevant. It can certainly shed some light over things. And reveal the many differences in this thing we call our reality. That’s how we move, how we should move, through our lives, with our blind spots and occasional clear sights. Through forest and over beaches, over heaths and through deserts and cities, over mountain ranges and rivers, towards our eventual horizons.

There’s a ‘Z’ in horizon, I don’t find that to be a coincidence, at least I find it quite meaningful, even beautiful. ---- (figuratively with all its connotations, as well as phoneticly with all its connotations) .

Alright: India.

And good luck with your exhibition. The poster looks great!

Hope to see you soon.

Love

Lars Bo

Fra: Tor Jonsson

I like the notion of language being dialogous. Apparently we used to dance to each other, then sing, proceeded to talk. In a thousand years we'll make click sounds to each other as out language have evolved to the same refinement as those other people wherever they live.

I enjoy traditional greek irony, this:

• (also dramatic or tragic irony )a literary technique, originally used in Greek tragedy, by which the fullsignificance of a character's words or actions are clear to the audience or reader although unknown to the character.

I think it is risky in this day and age to utilize any other type of irony. The possibility of being misunderstood is always there, always threatening the reader with the label of 'stupid'. I think it is we who have to suffer, stretch out and open hand, expose our throats to the reader - we, artists, have to win back peoples trust, not threaten them.

I am always aware of that I am not trusted, artwork is looked upon with eyes of suspicion. Art has been central to human existence for thousands of years, in caves, in cathedrals, but in our time it takes place in the periphery, hounded out of society by the cursed ideas of art for arts sake.

I love your notes.

I love your journey to India.

Regarding horizons: Here's a preview of one of my new works for the show. It's an old contact sheet I made black and white and printed enormously big. The print is on incredibly beautiful Hahnemühle paper, the black surface is matt and rich like velvet, and is 140 cm high and 115 cm wide (!). (It cost me 3000 kr to make unmounted and unframed!)

The traditional greek irony. It's an open, inclusive gesture: irony as a tool. Not as a weapon, as it too often is used these days. not making fun of somebody, just making fun (of all of us). The artist should dare taking the risk of being made fun of. As should everybody.

Right now, as I'm writing the keys are making click sounds. We're there as we've always been.

I'd like to comment on art not being at the centre of society anymore. But, as I've said: I'm on my way to India. Maybe I'll write from there. I have a feeling that just might make sense.

Ha ha, yes, we should both soldier on, despite the terrors of exiting our respective bunkers. Feel free to publish the discussion on your silent blog. Regarding your keystrokes and the sound of the sea:

"Audition excels at the `What's happening?' sensing a signal only when there's an event. Audition not only captures events we cannot see...but serves to alert us to events occurring even within our view. Nonevents may be screaming visually, but they are not actually making any noise, and so audition has unobstructed access to events--for the simple reason that sound waves are cast only when there is an event." (p. 34)

Mark Changizi, "Harnessed: How Language and Music Mimicked Nature and Transformed Ape to Man"

Please be careful in India and please come back in one piece. Sleep well.

Love

Tor

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Fra Tor:

It struck me that we had this correspondence on the place in between, the day that does not exist - the 29th of february.